Academy
Build a Venture
Fifteen lessons on venture-scale company building: opportunity sizing, unit economics, founder structure, product engineering, product-market fit, traction and fundraising.
The folders
6 steps, 15 lessons
Work top to bottom. Each lesson is a deck to read, a short list of things to do, and the documents you need to do them.
Step 1 — Decide if this is a venture
Separate a good business from a venture-scale one before you take anyone money.
When this step is done: An honest written answer on which path you are on.
- 1.1
Startup vs Small Business
Distinguish venture-backed startups from small businesses using growth rate, capital structure, and exit intent.
30 minOpens with enrolment - 1.2
Venture-Scale Opportunity
Evaluate whether an idea has the market size, timing, and growth mechanics required for venture capital.
35 minOpens with enrolment
Step 2 — Prove the opportunity
Discovery, market size and unit economics — the three things an investor will test first.
When this step is done: A defensible case for the opportunity with numbers.
- 2.3
Customer Discovery
Run structured problem-interviews to validate demand before writing code, using Steve Blank's discovery method.
40 minOpens with enrolment - 2.4
TAM, SAM and SOM
Calculate TAM, SAM and SOM using top-down and bottom-up methods to size a venture opportunity credibly.
35 minOpens with enrolment - 2.5
Unit Economics
Calculate CAC, LTV, gross margin and payback period with worked arithmetic to test business model viability.
40 minOpens with enrolment
Step 3 — Own it properly
Equity, vesting, IP and the paperwork that decides who owns what, forever.
When this step is done: A clean cap table and signed founder documents.
- 3.6
Founders, Equity and IP
Set founder equity splits, 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff, option pools, Delaware incorporation, and IP assignment correctly.
45 minOpens with enrolment
Step 4 — Build the product
Roadmap, MVP engineering and the infrastructure decisions that are expensive to reverse.
When this step is done: A shipped MVP on a stack you can defend.
- 4.7
Product Roadmap
How to sequence features into a roadmap that ships a testable MVP fast and defers everything else.
40 minOpens with enrolment - 4.8
MVP Engineering
How to scope, build, and ship a minimum viable product with real cost, time, and stack tradeoffs.
45 minOpens with enrolment - 4.9
AI, Cloud, Database and Security
Choose your AI, cloud, database and security stack so it survives an audit and a 10x traffic spike without a rewrite.
50 minOpens with enrolment
Step 5 — Find fit and traction
Measure product-market fit, get to market and report the metrics that matter.
When this step is done: Evidence of pull, in numbers you can show.
- 5.10
Product-Market Fit
Define, measure and pursue product-market fit using retention curves, the Sean Ellis test and qualitative signal.
45 minOpens with enrolment - 5.11
Go-to-Market
Pick one primary channel, build a repeatable motion, and calculate CAC payback before you spend on growth.
50 minOpens with enrolment - 5.12
Traction and Metrics
Track the handful of metrics that actually predict a fundable, scalable business: growth rate, retention, burn multiple, and margin.
45 minOpens with enrolment
Step 6 — Raise and scale
Deck, SAFEs, dilution arithmetic and what changes after the money lands.
When this step is done: A fundable story and a plan for the capital.
- 6.13
Pitch Deck
Build a 12-15 slide pitch deck in the standard investor sequence, with what belongs on each slide and why.
40 minOpens with enrolment - 6.14
SAFEs, Fundraising and Venture Capital
Master SAFE mechanics, valuation cap versus discount, and worked dilution arithmetic before you raise a single dollar.
55 minOpens with enrolment - 6.15
Scaling from MVP
Scale from MVP to a repeatable, fundable business by sequencing hiring, process, and infrastructure to actual proof, not ambition.
50 minOpens with enrolment
Access
What enrolment costs
This programme on its own is $249, including one 15-minute office hour. Both programmes together are $399 with two office hours. If you want us working alongside you week by week, Build With Us is scoped to what you are building and quoted individually. One payment, lifetime access to the complete written programme; recordings are added as produced.